Colorado Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni has welcomed the appointment of Claudio Lopez as director of soccer.

Mastroeni is looking forward to working with López and considers his addition to the technical team a "huge development" for the coming year. Just read how he describes the former Argentinian international and his role with the Rapids.

"As a player he's played at the highest level - for his country (Argentina) as well as around the world. He brings tremendous experience. He's a great identifier of talent and in that role he can help us continue to build our team. On the field he can work with players who we feel can use that one-on-one type of work with a guy who specializes in the finishing aspects of the game.

"Other than that, he's a good friend, a mentor and someone we felt was an important piece to our 2010 MLS championship team. Although he did not play that much for us that year, he brought a lot to the underpinnings of that team."

The Rapids' coach says that López will bring a more specialized approach to coaching the players, freeing up all of the coaches to concentrate on their strengths without being stretched individually on different aspects of the game.

"It's critical to have (this type of specialization) around the players so they can get information from a different angle," Mastroeni says. "Here's a guy with a wealth of experience who cannot only articulate what he wants, but also still has the ability to demonstrate to the players, which is important."